Memorial to Covid 19 victims

Andrew Dismore: Nearly 7,000 Londoners have died of the Covid 19 virus Will you consider organising a memorial or ceremony to mourn those Londoners lost to the virus?

The Mayor: COVID-19 has had and continues to have a devastating impact on our city. City Hall staff are working with London boroughs, community groups and charities to determine the most appropriate way of commemorating and remembering those who have tragically lost their lives as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect to provide further information on plans in the Autumn.

London Is Open Campaign Funding

Susan Hall: How much funding have you given to the #LondonIsOpen Campaign each year since its creation in 2016?

The Mayor: As Mayor, I have worked hard to ensure London remains a welcoming, open, and economically thriving city. In 2016 I launched the London is Open campaign in the backdrop of the referendum result to ensure this great city continues to attract businesses, talent, investment and tourism from across the world, and to offer support to Londoners most impacted by Brexit. Over the last four years the campaign has promoted London’s key attractions, delivered essential resources and advice to EU Londoners on settled status, and shared guidance to London’s businesses on how to best prepare for a post-Brexit future.
The campaign has successfully reached millions of people both in London and internationally since it started in 2016. This includes generating millions of views of the #LondonIsOpen videos specifically promoting London’s cultural attractions, events and night-time economy; driving over 840,000 visits to our free EU Londoners advice hub; providing face to face legal advice to over 2300 EU Londoners; supporting thousands of businesses through our Brexit Business Resource Hub; and leveraging over £6.5million worth of value in kind support for this message from businesses and partners across the city.
From launch in June 2016 until 14 September 2020 the breakdown of #LondonIsOpen campaign spend (including contributions from external partners), is as follows:

Techinvest Funding

Susan Hall: How much funding has been awarded through the Techinvest programme since its launch and how much funding still remains?

The Mayor: The Mayor of London's TechInvest event series, delivered in partnership with the UK Business Angel Association, is a 4-year programme that has a total budget of £280,000 in line with MD2114. There is £40,000 left for the last year of the programme in 2021 which will see a further 5 pitch sessions, for up to 50 companies.
TechInvest does not directly provide funding to businesses, rather theseevents bring together some of London’s most innovative and high-growth potential start-ups to pitch to industry leading investors. Each event sees an average of £2.2bn of deployable capital represented by investors in the room, and participating businesses have seen a total of £135m of investment to date, with £15m of investment directly attributed to the event series.

Euro VI buses October target

Caroline Russell: Will you meet your October 2020 target for the London diesel bus fleet to be 100 per cent Euro VI compliant, including any buses used on extra services for school children only?

The Mayor: Currently, over 8,750 buses meet Euro VI compliance or better, which is around 96% of the bus fleet.
The TfL NOx Bus Retrofit Programme was paused from March – July 2020 as a result of measures introduced to tackle COVID-19. Bus manufacturers (UK and global) closed factories between March – July 2020. There were production and supply chain issues globally as lockdown eased and production restarted, and this has resulted in the late delivery of some new TfL buses and retrofits.
TfL is working with bus operators and retrofit suppliers to accelerate delivery where possible, with the overall aim for the core fleet to fully meet the Euro VI standard by the end of 2020. This means the bus fleet will be fully compliant with the new LEZ standards which will now be introduced in March 2021.